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5.24.2017

The Illusionist's Apprentice ~ Review

The Illusionist's ApprenticeBy Kristy Cambron

Wren Lockhart is hiding a secret, and not just the secrets as to her illusions and how she performs them. Rather her secret is one that goes back to the moment her childhood ended 20 years prior and she'll do anything to protect what is hers...

But when a publicly touted illusion goes very wrong Wren becomes a person of interest to the FBI just because she witnessed the illusion from the outer fringes. But working with the FBI could hurt her reputation as an illusionist and bring the scorn of those within the profession upon her. But lives and reputations are at stake including Wren's and the FBI agents who are seeking the truth.

The Illusionist's Apprentice takes the reader back in time. The main focus of the book is set in 1927 with backstory reveals throughout that that take the reader to 1907, 1910 and 1916 as key moments from Wren's past are revealed. This is an intricate and complex illusion that will take all of Wren's efforts to discover who is behind this illusion. But she can't do it alone and must rely on the unwanted and, yet, appreciated help of the FBI - specifically Agent Elliot Matthews and his partner Agent Connor Finegan.

Take a step back in time to the 1920's when life was not so technically tethered and enjoy a mystery that is wrapped in the deceptive and alluring power of illusion. The book is as entertaining as the cover hints at it being. Historical fiction, romance, and mystery this book will captivate you from the opening page.

I was provided a review copy of this book by the Fiction Guild with no expectations of a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

About the Book:

Not all illusions happen on the stage...

Harry Houdini’s one-time apprentice holds fantastic secrets about the greatest illusionist in the world. But someone wants to claim them . . . or silence her before she can reveal them on her own.

Boston, 1926. Jenny “Wren” Lockhart is a bold eccentric—even for a female vaudevillian. As notorious for her inherited wealth and gentleman’s dress as she is for her unsavory upbringing in the back halls of a vaudeville theater, Wren lives in a world that challenges all manner of conventions.

In the months following Houdini’s death, Wren is drawn into a web of mystery surrounding a spiritualist by the name of Horace Stapleton, a man defamed by Houdini’s ardent debunking of fraudulent mystics in the years leading up to his death. But in a public illusion that goes terribly wrong, one man is dead and another stands charged with his murder. Though he’s known as one of her teacher’s greatest critics, Wren must decide to become the one thing she never wanted to be: Stapleton’s defender.

Forced to team up with the newly formed FBI, Wren races against time and an unknown enemy, all to prove the innocence of a hated man. In a world of illusion, of the vaudeville halls that showcase the flamboyant and the strange, Wren’s carefully constructed world threatens to collapse around her. Layered with mystery, illusion, and the artistry of the Jazz Age’s bygone vaudeville era, The Illusionist’s Apprentice is a journey through love and loss and the underpinnings of faith on each life’s stage.